1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to electronic musical instruments and, more particularly, microprocessor-based MIDI-compatible controllers and instruments.
2. Description of the Related Art
Electronic musical instruments (commonly referred to as synthesizers, keyboards or controllers), are known in which sounds are electronically stored as digital data to be reproduced according to the playing of keys by a musician. Such electronic musical instruments usually have a keyboard, with a repeating pattern of twelve standard Western keys in a layout similar to that of a piano keyboard, in which the selection of a key on the keyboard can reproduce a respective note which is the same as that which would be reproduced by a piano. The conventional keyboard layout is usually employed because musicians have been trained to play a piano-style keyboard and can play such an electronic keyboard without having to learn new and different fingering patterns.
Although prevalent, a piano-style keyboard is not the only layout in which keys may be selected to produce respective notes. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,088,378 discusses the adaptation of a typewriter keyboard to the reproduction of music.
Furthermore, since traditional physical constraints to musical instrument design do not apply in the electronic domain, it is possible to design a new and abstract system instrument that solves existing fingering problems. In particular, it is not necessary for the fingering system of an electronic musical instrument to be identical to that of the physical instrument whose sounds it is attempting to mimic. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,036,745 discusses the use of an electronic keyboard to mimic a woodwind instrument.
Although some electronic musical instruments produce notes by a method which is not modeled directly after an acoustic instrument, or is abstract in some other way, they nevertheless have an absolute correspondence between a selected keypress and the note produced by that keypress (notwithstanding awkward features such as octave keys and key transpose functions). That is, selection of one of the keypresses reproduces a preselected pitch (typically one of the twelve notes of the standard Western equal-tempered scale) unique to that keypress.
There is therefore no natural way to switch easily from one key signature to another and play a melodic sequence learned in the first key signature without re-learning fingering in the new key signature. Similarly, in order to switch easily from one scale to another and play a melodic contour (a sequence of interval relationships) learned in the first scale, one must re-learn the fingering of that contour in the new scale. Additionally, a melodic contour cannot even be performed at a different position within the same scale and key signature without extensive re-learning of fingering. All of these considerations limit the speed, flexibility and ease with which the keyboardist can perform, especially while improvising.
Traditional keyboard designs also limit the number of notes which are available at any one time to the number of keys on the keyboard. As a result, keyboards either have a limited musical range or are excessively bulky and heavy.
Furthermore, other electronic musical instruments do not present a unified and logical system in which changes of harmonic environment (scales and key signatures) can be made without disturbing a natural-sounding, continuous melodic line.
Also, other electronic musical instruments are often not practical to carry to performances or recording sessions as they are in the form of software to be run on any of several popular computers. And although one could program a portable computer such as a "lap-top" with software, many laptops will not accept MIDI cards, and fewer if any will accept secondary keyboards, such as special ergonomic, injury-preventing keyboards that are best in this application.
Finally, many aspects of the traditional black-and-white keyboard layout have been rendered largely obsolete by advances in musical harmony. This is to say that the melodic patterns preferred by many modern improvisers and composers no longer utilize the harmonic rules and constructs popular in the day the pianoforte was invented. This is perhaps even more important to performers partial to non-Western scales, who are not able to perform in and migrate easily amongst a number of microtonal scales due to a lack of instruments equal to the task. And although some modern synthesizers have the ability to reproduce non-Western scales, many do not, and the standard in the MIDI protocol that addresses this issue has yet to be implemented by synthesizer manufacturers.